Definition of "hammer"

hammer

/ˈhæm.ə(ɹ)/

noun
plural hammers
1. A tool with a heavy head and a handle used for pounding.
2. The act of using a hammer to hit something.
3. (firearms) A moving part of a firearm that strikes the firing pin to discharge a gun.
  Quotations
  Nonstop hammer cock, violent mannered shots land a lot
  2016, Doseone (lyrics and music), “Enter the Gungeon”, in Enter the Gungeon OST
  In the course of a single month this year, the following news reports emanated from Florida: A gun enthusiast in Tampa built a 55-foot backyard pool shaped like a revolver, with a hot tub in the hammer.
  2023 March 27, Helen Lewis, “How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?”, in The Atlantic‎
4. (anatomy) The malleus, a small bone of the middle ear.
5. (music) In a piano or dulcimer, a piece of wood covered in felt that strikes the string.
6. (sports) A device made of a heavy steel ball attached to a length of wire, and used for throwing.
7. (curling) The last stone in an end.
8. (frisbee) A frisbee throwing style in which the disc is held upside-down with a forehand grip and thrown above the head.
9. Part of a clock that strikes upon a bell to indicate the hour.
10. One who, or that which, smites or shatters.
  Quotations
  He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had been the massive iron hammers of the whole earth.
  1849, John Henry Newman, Discourses to Mixed Congregations
11. (journalism) Ellipsis of hammer headline.
  Quotations
  Hammers are, in essence, reverse kickers. Instead of being set in smaller type like kickers, hammers are set in larger type than headlines.
  1981, Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls, Douglas A. Anderson, Electronic Age News Editing, page 104
12. (motor racing) The accelerator pedal.
  Quotations
  We is headin' for bear on I-one-oh'Bout a mile outta Shaky Town.I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber DuckAnd I'm about to put the hammer down."
  1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall
verb
third-person singular simple present hammers, present participle hammering, simple past and past participle hammered
1. To strike repeatedly with a hammer, some other implement, the fist, etc.
  Quotations
  Fresleven - that was the fellow’s name, a Dane - thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick.
  1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 198
2. To form or forge with a hammer; to shape by beating.
  Quotations
  hammered money
  1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
3. (figuratively) To emphasize a point repeatedly.
4. (sports, etc.) To hit particularly hard.
  Quotations
  This time the defender was teed up by Andrew Johnson's short free-kick on the edge of the box and Baird hammered his low drive beyond Begovic's outstretched left arm and into the bottom corner, doubling his goal tally for the season and stunning the home crowd.
  2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC‎
  "My memory of him in the office at Peterborough was the ferocious nature of his typing, on a manual machine of course. This was long before the days of desktop publishing, and you could hear him down the corridor absolutely hammering the keyboard."
  2023 January 25, Howard Johnston, “Peter Kelly: August 2 1944-December 28 2022”, in RAIL, number 975, page 47
5. (cycling, intransitive, slang) To ride very fast.
  Quotations
  Fifteen minutes later, leaving a vapour trail of kitchen smells, I hammered into Obterre.
  2011, Tim Moore, French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, page 58
  Running at line-speed, well over 100mph, it hammers through Doncaster on its way south to London.
  2019 December 18, Richard Clinnick, “Traction transition: HST to Azuma”, in Rail, page 32
6. (intransitive) To strike internally, as if hit by a hammer.
7. (transitive, slang, figuratively, sports) To defeat (a person, a team) resoundingly
8. (transitive, slang, computing) To make high demands on (a system or service).
  Quotations
  So we'll be hammering the server in an unrealistic manner, but we'll see how the additional clients affect overall performance. We'll add two, three, four, and then five clients, […]
  1995, Optimizing Windows NT, volume 4, page 226
9. (transitive, finance) To declare (a person) a defaulter on the stock exchange.
10. (transitive, finance) To beat down the price of (a stock), or depress (a market).
11. (sex, transitive, colloquial) To have hard sex with.
  Quotations
  A short time later I’ve got Lissie in bed. I’m really going after it, really hammering her.
  2012, John Locke, Wish List (Donovan Creed), John Locke Books, page 19

Definition of "hammer"

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noun

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